The Basel Convention is being amended to ensure that transborder shipments of all types of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), whether hazardous or not, will be subject to prior notification and consent requirements. The amendments were adopted at the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention (BC COP-15), which took place in Geneva in mid-June.
“This bold decision not only protects vulnerable countries from unwanted imports, but also fosters the environmentally sound management of e-wastes with state-of-the-art technology and thus contributes to a circular economy,” said the Convention Secretariat in a press release. The new rules, which were proposed by Ghana and Switzerland, will apply from 1 January 2025. Similarly to the amendments for plastic waste adopted in 2019, they are based on new entries in the Annexes to the Basel Convention....
